--- description: The Newsroom creator says media outlets covering the cyberattack are "morally treasonous and spectacularly dishonorable." title: Aaron Sorkin Says Media 'Morally Treasonous' in Sony Hack image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6399adad87915594/69876ea40b72e367776dc98f/aaron-sorkin.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrities](/tag/celebrities/) ## celebrities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Aaron Sorkin Says Media 'Morally Treasonous' in Sony Hack  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 15, 2014 1:08 PM CUT  Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin arrives for the premiere of 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, 2014. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin arrives for the premiere of 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, 2014.Nina Prommer—EPA  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 15, 2014 1:08 PM CUT Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin [has harsh words](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/opinion/aaron-sorkin-journalists-shouldnt-help-the-sony-hackers.html?%5Fr=0 "undefined") for media outlets who published information revealed in the leaked emails from the recent Sony Pictures hack. “As a screenwriter in Hollywood who’s only two generations removed from probably being blacklisted, I’m not crazy about Americans calling other Americans un-American, so let’s just say that every news outlet that did the bidding of the Guardians of Peace is morally treasonous and spectacularly dishonorable,” Sorkin wrote in [a New York _Times_ op-ed](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/opinion/aaron-sorkin-journalists-shouldnt-help-the-sony-hackers.html?%5Fr=0 "undefined") published Sunday night. Sorkin, who created _The West Wing_ and the recently concluded _The Newsroom_, says said media outlets reporting information form the hack are helping the hacker group that, in addition to carrying out the cyberattack that exposed confidential personal information such as medical records, also threatened the safety of Sony Pictures’ employees’ families. **MORE:** [Meet the Sony executive at the center of the worst corporate hack ever](http://time.com/3631735/amy-pascal-sony-hack/ "undefined") A group calling itself the Guardians of Peace had threatened to reveal the documents it obtained if the studio went forward with _The Interview_, a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco that follows a fictional assassination attempt on North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. Sorkin’s name has come up in stories about the leaked emails, as several of them concern what he calls behind-the-scenes “squabbling” about the Steve Jobs biopic he’s writing. But Sorkin says justifying coverage of the stolen documents’ content as “newsworthy” is misguided. “I understand that news outlets routinely use stolen information,” Sorkin writes. “That’s how we got the Pentagon Papers, to use an oft-used argument. But there is nothing in these documents remotely rising to the level of public interest of the information found in the Pentagon Papers.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3633366/sony-hack-aaron-sorkin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3633366/sony-hack-aaron-sorkin/"},"headline":"Aaron Sorkin Says Media 'Morally Treasonous' in Sony Hack","datePublished":"2014-12-15T13:08:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:51:04.509Z","description":"The Newsroom creator says media outlets covering the cyberattack are \"spectacularly dishonorable\"","url":"https://time.com/3633366/sony-hack-aaron-sorkin/","keywords":["celebrities","movies","aaron sorkin","Sony Pictures","Sony hack"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6399adad87915594/69876ea40b72e367776dc98f/aaron-sorkin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6399adad87915594/69876ea40b72e367776dc98f/aaron-sorkin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Aaron Sorkin","caption":"Aaron Sorkin","creditText":"Nina Prommer—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3633366/sony-hack-aaron-sorkin/","name":"Aaron Sorkin Says Media 'Morally Treasonous' in Sony Hack"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Sony Exec, Oscar-Winning Producer Apologize Over Emails About Obama","description":"Sony Pictures Entertainment chair Amy Pascal and Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin have both issued apologies after Sony’s massive corporate hack revealed an email exchange of the two making distasteful jokes about President Obama.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/x8QfeQAd/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-11T19:32:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/x8QfeQAd.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3633366/sony-hack-aaron-sorkin/","duration":"PT1M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3633366/sony-hack-aaron-sorkin/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```